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People living with cancer and haematological malignancies are at an increased risk of hospitalisation and death following infection with acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Coronavirus third dose vaccine boosters are proposed to boost waning immune responses in immunocompromised individuals and increase coronavirus protection; however, their effectiveness has not yet been systematically evaluated.This study is a population-scale real-world evaluation of the United Kingdom's third dose vaccine booster programme for cancer patients from 8th December 2020 to 7th December 2021. The cancer cohort comprises individuals from Public Health England's national cancer dataset, excluding individuals less than 18 years. A test-negative case-control design was used to assess the third dose booster vaccine effectiveness. Multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to compare risk in the cancer cohort relative to the general population.The cancer cohort comprised of 2,258,553 tests from 361,098 individuals. Third dose boosters were evaluated by reference to 87,039,743 polymerase chain reaction coronavirus tests. Vaccine effectiveness against breakthrough infections, symptomatic infections, coronavirus hospitalisation and death in cancer patients were 59.1%, 62.8%, 80.5% and 94.5%, respectively. Lower vaccine effectiveness was associated with a cancer diagnosis within 12 months, lymphoma, recent systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) or radiotherapy. Patients with lymphoma had low levels of protection from symptomatic disease. In spite of third dose boosters, following multivariable adjustment, individuals with cancer remain at an increased risk of coronavirus hospitalisation and death compared to the population control (OR 3.38, 3.01, respectively. p lt; 0.001 for both).Third dose boosters are effective for most individuals with cancer, increasing protection from coronavirus. However, their effectiveness is heterogenous and lower than the general population. Many patients with cancer will remain at the increased risk of coronavirus infections even after 3 doses. In the case of patients with lymphoma, there is a particularly strong disparity of vaccine effectiveness against breakthrough infection and severe disease. Breakthrough infections will disrupt cancer care and treatment with potentially adverse consequences on survival outcomes. The data support the role of vaccine boosters in preventing severe disease, and further pharmacological intervention to prevent transmission and aid viral clearance to limit the disruption of cancer care as the delivery of care continues to evolve during the coronavirus pandemic.

Background People with cancer are at increased risk of hospitalisation and death following infection with SARS-CoV-2.Therefore, we aimed to conduct one of the first evaluations of vaccine effectiveness against breakthroughSARS-CoV-2 infections in patients with cancer at a population level.Methods In this population-based test-negative case-control study of the UK Coronavirus Cancer Evaluation Project(UKCCEP), we extracted data from the UKCCEP registry on all S ARS-CoV-2 PCR test results (from the SecondGeneration Surveillance System), vaccination records (from the National Immunisation Management Service),patient demographics, and cancer records from England, UK, from Dec 8, 2020, to Oct 15, 2021. Adults (aged≥18 years) with cancer in the UKCCEP registry were identified via Public Health England’s Rapid Cancer RegistrationDataset between Jan 1, 2018, and April 30, 2021, and comprised the cancer cohort. We constructed a control populationcohort from adults with PCR tests in the UKCCEP registry who were not contained within the Rapid CancerRegistration Dataset. The coprimary endpoints were overall vaccine effectiveness ag ainst breakthrough infectionsafter the second dose (positive PCR COVID-19 test) and vacci ne effectiveness against breakthrough infections at3–6 months after the second dose in the cancer cohort and control population.Findings The cancer cohort comprised 377 194 individuals, of whom 42882 had breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections.The control population consisted of 28 010 955 in dividuals, of wh om 5 748 708 had SARS- CoV-2 breakthroughinfections. Overall vaccine effectiveness was 69·8% (95% CI 69·8–69·9) in the control population and 65·5%(65·1–65·9) in the cancer cohort. Vaccine effectiveness at3–6 months was lower in the cancer cohort (47·0%, 46·3–47·6)than in the control population (61·4%, 61·4–61·5).Interpretation COVID-19 vaccination is effective for individuals with cancer, conferring varying levels of protectionagainst breakthrough infections. However, vaccine effectiveness is lower in patients with cancer than in the generalpopulation. COVID-19 vaccination for patients with cancer should be used in conjunction with non-pharmacologicalstrategies and community-based antiviral treatment programmes to reduce the risk that COVID-19 poses to patientswith cancer

Mammalian cell cultures are integral to the production of therapeutic and diagnostic proteins. A common problem encountered in culturing these cell lines, however, is a loss in viability at later stages of the cell culture process. In this study the effects of three newly synthesized chemical caspase inhibitors were investigated for their capacity to inhibit cell death. Findings show that these protease inhibitors were successful in prolonging cellular viabilities among anchorage-dependent CHO-K1 and HEK-293 cells lines. Cells treated with one inhibitor, 7312, performed as well or better when compared with the commercially known caspase inhibitor, zVAD.fmk. Suspension CHO cells producing an IgG were used to investigate the capacity of 7312 to improve protein production. Treatment of cells with 7312 increased integrated cell densities by 33% with treated cells having a higher maximum cell density and higher viability. As a result, monoclonal antibody titers increased by 20% and higher in spinner flask experiments. Increasing productivity in mammalian cell cultures has key implications for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, which are presently focused on developing methods to enhance cell performance in bioreactor environments.

It is possible to switch on the synthesis of recombinant proteins in E. coli simply by increasing the temperature of the fermentation. How this is achieved is one of the success stories of recombinant DNA technology.